The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1887-06-15
A WINTER GARDEN.
The Charming verdant Landscapes Of Fen
ruary In Southern California.

I
ruary In Southern California.
Winter is an almost unknown season In
Southern California. While In the East
snow and ice imprison nature, In Call
fornia the air is balmy and the hill
slopes are verdant. made horseback
tour last February - mid-winter = yet
the entire face of the country was a
veritable garden. The slopes Of the
mountains for two or three thousand
feet were clothed with the rich green's
of the chaparral and menganila, that
finally disappeared in a rich coating
of silvery snow; the broad mesa that
stretched away below was green with
growing barley, while here and there,
winding away like rivers of fire, the rich
tints of the poppy made wondrous con-
trast. There are fields of solid yellows
adjoining stretch of rich puppies be-
yond acres of daisies, wild heliotropes
and fairy crucifers, and hundred more
join in producing an effect to be seen no
where else. Great patches Of yellow
violets nod on the gentle breeze, the
sharply shooting star, the red trumpet
flower, scarlet gooseberry, the high bush
mimulus, lark spur, and many more add
to the beauties of the scene, help form
the carpet over which our horses walk,
hurting incense into the air at every step.
Such winters day can hardly be
imagined-the air is full of sweet odors,
and the songs of birds; yet but raise the
eye, and the wind-tossed snow may be
seen bright on the Sierras, a strange and
m arxx1 Ca 0al,w - al
| valley is an oasis in a desert, in more
senses than one, and before the railroad
found its way here, might well have been
the prototype Of the mysterious valley Of
Sindbad, that was only accessible upon
the back of eagles. As we ride down its
centre its entire confguration is seen;
upon the north rise the Sierra Madres,
almost directly from the mesa, extending
for sixty or seventy miles in what is
apparently an unbroken ridge; but far
away 1t breaks up into several great
peaks-Old Badly, San Bernardino,
San Jacinto, and others-from 10000,
to 1000 feet above the Pacific. To
the south and west rises long ridge
of hills called the Puente, ending in
Mount Santa Ana, and over their tops,
thirty miles away, glisten the shining
waters of the Pacific. Thus the valley
Is surrounded by mountains and hills,
the Sierra Madres being forty or fifty
miles through a maze Of canons, ridges
and peaks that will always defy the set
tier, and that finally merge into the great
desert of Arizona or mojave far to the
East. Our way leads us down the valley
parallel to the snow-capped range passing
thousands of acres green with the orange,
olive, plum, apple, grape, palm and every
possible sub-tropical plant, tree or shrub.
| Here is the modern villa, costing sew
eral thousand dollars, and half a mile
away in little ravine we come upon an
adobe house, perhaps of the last century.
The inhabitants, perhaps owners, are
half-breeds, Indians and Mexicans, and
| while the valley is, and all about them Is,
becoming modernized, they remain the
samoa remnant of past age. The
housekeeper, a portly dame, Is grinding
grain In stone dish with stone grinder
just as did her ancestors several hundred
years ago. The old mud wall of the
building has settled and sagged so that
the wind blows In when there is
any, which Is rarely, yet no attempt at
repair is made. In following the regular
roads, one misses the hooks and corners
and the vestiges of the olden time; but
on horseback the lanes and by-p parks can
be followed and the points Of greatest
interest seen. @. +. HOLDER.